Breaking: The new health care plan will come with a dog cage for the roof of every car.

[Just barking mad; there can’t be any other explanation.]

Good Morning…from the discussion before…may be we can give a break to Obama criticism. Let him get a start, have a grace period…..give him a chance. Just a thought.

Is this what we call “the silly season?” I think…

Oh wow. Mitty is helping with the planning!

good morning – lots of hearings today, including:

On today’s schedule is Paul Volcker at Senate Banking and Eric Shinseki at House Veterans’ Affairs. Harry Markopolos, the Madoff Ponzi Scheme whistleblower, is scheduled to testify before the House Financial Services committee and will be followed by some of the regulators who ignored his many warnings. At the House Agricultural committee a second big day of testimony on proposed regulation for financial derivatives

more hearings, links, etc at oxdown.

Here’s what’s going to happen with the economic stimulus bill:

The Senate republicans are going to vote overwhelmingly for it and the House republicans will hold hands again and vote against it. They’ll tell us it was not a political move on their part. Uh ha. Yeah right.

jim please tell me it’s a bad joke. please? this ma resident has had enough.

MSNBC is stating Dick Cheney is warning of another attack! I wonder how many times he’s been on the phone with the CIA/FBI/Pentagon since last year in planning this new attack?

better skip my comments then. :(

Bev and Kay: It’s really hard to understand how Ambinder could make that suggestion without just getting struck by lightning in the act. But there it is (on BT’s Stupidest. Suggestion. Ever. link).

I suppose the other possibility is that we all get the magic undies. Maybe they have medical value…

But what Romney, in a bipartisan fashion, was able to do in Massachusetts — even with caveats — is pretty much the same as what Obama wants to do on a national level.

1. romney didn’t do it. is ambinder reading romney’s talking points or what?

2. it cost too much to the state, it costs too much to lots of people and it leaves too many people out. the ma plan is a stop gap measure and a good example of what not to do on the national level.

thank goodness it’s only ambinder. hope the stupid doesn’t spread.

Now, I have been waiting for that. Im outta here…It’s a rare day I get out the door before SD….so when you get here, Good Morning to you. Later…

I’m corresponding with an economics consultant for Fox News. I’ll go through this in an hour or so, but if anyone has any thoughts on how to answer the guy, I’m somewhat conversant on economics, but don’t want to say anything really ignorant in response.
Thanks!

My alternative isn’t doing nothing. But first let me make it clear what the Keynesian point is. The Keynesian argument is that if you give people money to spend that will generate more demand. The problem is how to understand how Keynesians think of saving — it is like putting money in your mattress. In reality saving isn’t like that. Suppose you keep your money in the bank. The bank isn’t going to sit on the money — it is going to lend it out. The other related point is that the money has to come from someplace — whether the government has to borrow or tax or print up the money that it gives to someone to spend. If I give person X $1,000 and tax person Y $1,000 to give it, there is no net change in expenditures. Even if person Y is “spending” “only” $800 and person X “$1,000.” The other $200 for person Y comes from his bank account or stocks or bonds and takes away the money that would have been lent out to someone else to spend.

The blogger Atrios is well motivated, but he is wrong unless he can figure out how to get money to be in two different places at the same time. Let me add one caveat. What he is talking about isn’t stimulus, but if you want to argue that some people need help to make ends meet, that is a different story. Just make it and don’t call it stimulus. Also my suggestion isn’t to so micromanage how people can spend the money. Just give them the money and let them spend it on what they need help with most. If STDs is really what they need help with or buying converter boxes for their TVs, they will spend the money on those things. But don’t say that is where the money has to be spent.

So how do you make the pie bigger? You have to give people an incentive to work more. The way to do that is to have the right type of tax cuts. What matters is the marginal tax rate, how much gets taken from you for each additional dollar that you earn. The greater the percentage of money that is taken from people for them working more, the less they will work. The tax cuts in the stimulus package are the exact wrong types of tax cuts because they are lump sum tax credits that get phased out as people’s income gets higher — actually raising the marginal tax rates because you lose the credit as you earn more money.

I also wouldn’t have bailed out the large banks and other companies, and have argued strongly against the Bush policies from last year.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,431645,00.html
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,467044,00.html

Anyway, I have a fever and probably should stop writing, but I hope that helps.

So Markopolos is *finally* gonna testify? Iirc, it was he who was a no-show for a prior hearing.

I’m one of the dial-up people but did catch a large portion of that committee panel on the new report on waste, fraud, and abuse in Iraq by Bowen and his people. Thank Dog for him or we’d have a lot less information on that disaster.

this is beyond the stupidest suggestion ever. that articel also says:
Assuming that Obama’s ship is merely listing now….

huh?
Romney? health care czar? they gotta be nutz.

Mornin, BT, RevBev, pups

If I chased all the stuff coming out of DeeCee I’d be spinning like a whirling dervish. The only thing I can say is:

Patience, grasshoppers.

The Republicans have all turned into a horde of concern trolls.

i agree 1000%. but if he appoints romney to anything, that’s gonna be very difficult to continue.. i can’t see that happening. or even being considered. i’m giving him every chance. think he’s made some mistakes (stimulus package is a mish-mash; too accomodating to R’s and getting stiffed) but maybe not. i’m giving him a chance. gotta keep in mind he would have a ton of cleaning up to do even if the economy wasn’t in the shitter.

i guess (iirc he was sick or something last time?). there is a link to part of his written statement (warning it’s a pdf and almost 3MB) and it looks like a doosey.

Re. the latest MN recount……here’s hoping Franken winds up with even more votes. At the rate they’re going, the state may have its second senator sometime before the end of the year. :-(

Wonder how much money is being thrown down the rabbit hole of lawyer’s pockets for just one senate seat (that should have already been filled)?

Douchebaggery:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…..63779.html

i don’t believe it.

QUERY: Can a comparison be made between the profiles of the type of Americans who work within the American auto industry and the type of American who works in the American Defence industry? median and average salaries, number of jobs, geographic locations, lifestyle…
Which industry is more intregal to the real American economy.

Not sure we ever got a true account of his non-appearance. Would love to take a look at the statement but size is a little daunting.

OMG, I was out of commission all day yesterday taking care of all those rabies issues (dog attacked by fox). I didn’t get home till9:30 and went straight to bed. I wake up today, turn on MSNBC and find out that the Obama Presidency is an utter failure. Worst ever. All in one day?

Damn, RevBev beat me outta here. Guess I’m gonna hafta get my ass in gear. My idiot boss, in a cost cutting move, cancelled the coffee service. Standard provided the coffee, tea, hot chocolate and a neato coffeemaker that had a hot water spigot. The swill it called coffee was undrinkable but the hot water was perfect for tea. Microwaved water for tea blows dead goats. Have to make coffee and tea at home to take to work. Waaaaaaaaaaah.

the pdf looks like a scan – if so, it’s only images and not text. let me grab a cup of coffee and take a look. i might be able to run it through a quick OCR (optical character read) to convert to text for easy downloading. back in a few….

Oh, gee, what a surprise.

Fuck McSFB, and all his friends too.

agree 1000%

Ya know, I gots a feelin’ that a geek would love whatever room you’ve got all yer electronic goodies in.

think Obama will meet with Joe The Plummer? appoint him to The Council of Economic Advisers? wait. he has some personal issues. never mind.

Yep – amazing, isn’t it? On the job a couple of weeks and already he’s been turned into an incompetant a**hole. And Dick Cheney is out there banging on the ‘terrorists are coming to get us, bugga, bugga’ drum too. I guess we have to steel ourselves to deal with this crap for four years – they just will never ever shut up.

I don’t how I can possibly get by on 500k a year. YIKES.

LOL Of course, they’re acting that way in the hopes no one notices the last 8 years of George Bush!

I’m sorry but the American financial problem is that some people have too much money and others have too little. Asking people to work harder is a silly flat statement…what work do you want them to do…that’s the question.
I don’t believe the schemers on Wall Street were productively working. And I suspect, they weren’t productively playing either, considering support for the arts dropped and Broadway darkened.
Making money in the U.S. is associated with not working; owning stock, hedging excessive salaries, bonuses and capital gains. Money works not people.

Lessee, I get by on about $21K net. Givin’ meself a little wiggle room, with $475K I could ensure the homeless in St Pete got fed more than once a week by Food Not Bombs, give some dust to the animal shelters, and help out my community radio station. Yeah, we could survive on $500K.

Obama has appointed nine members of the Tri-Lateral Commission to key positions.

According to official Trilateral Commission membership lists, there are only 87 members from the United States (the other 337 members are from other regions). Thus, in less than two weeks since his inauguration, Obama’s appointments encompass more than 12% of Commission’s entire U.S. membership.

http://oxdown.firedoglake.com/diary/3443

I failed to provide the hat tip to Big Dan on the foregoing story. He has a ton of great stuff (evidence) posted today:

http://bigdanblogger.blogspot.com/

Off to make some real coffee then off to swim in the great capitalist cesspool.

Be good to yourselves, and all other living things.

Namaste

nah, just crazy set up to try to make the most of what i do have (which is mostly old equipment except for the imac i got last year). the ocr is all software… running now.

btw, for help on making the most of what you got – tw3k is the master. and just a really nice person.

Why is Peggy Noonan still on my TV?

I thought they lost.

I thought their gross mismanagement and stealing was why they lost.

So why is anyone paying any attention to what she says?

It probably would help if you did learn some economics. What is Fox doing asking an untrained person for their views on something that requires specialist knowledge? No one would ask me about how to build a bridge!

My alternative isn’t doing nothing. But first let me make it clear what the Keynesian point is. The Keynesian argument is that if you give people money to spend that will generate more demand. The problem is how to understand how Keynesians think of saving — it is like putting money in your mattress. In reality saving isn’t like that. Suppose you keep your money in the bank. The bank isn’t going to sit on the money — it is going to lend it out. The other related point is that the money has to come from someplace — whether the government has to borrow or tax or print up the money that it gives to someone to spend. If I give person X $1,000 and tax person Y $1,000 to give it, there is no net change in expenditures. Even if person Y is “spending” “only” $800 and person X “$1,000.” The other $200 for person Y comes from his bank account or stocks

The answer to your paradox is ‘liquidity preference’ In periods of high anxiety, banks hold on to the money people deposit with them because they view the risks of lending to offset any expected return. On the other side of the coin, enterprises hold off borrowing because they see the risks of investing greater than the cost. It’s called Depression for good reason.

Now, there is also a simple accounting identity that goes by the name, ‘deficit, deficit, who’s got the deficit?’ When households save, they run a surplus. But that means some other part of the economy is running a deficit. In a depression that is unlikely to be the private sector, because that would imply firms investing more than they are saving from their revenues. The alternative is the government. Running huge government deficits makes up for the saving — i.e. lack of demand by households.

If you want really to be misinformed on this issue, you can read Gene Fama’s stuff from the University of Chicago econ dept. He is really and truly confused, which is hardly surprising, given where he teaches.

Why is Peggy Noonan still on my TV?

Once the change to Digital is complete there should be no more sightings.

I agree 200%, RevBev. It took 8 years to get into the mess we’re in, and we expect Obama to be perfect in two weeks. I am disappointed in a few things, but we shouldn’t let perfect be the enemy of the good (to use a phrase I am heartily sick of).

Once the change to Digital is complete there should be no more sightings.

One can only hope.

That is a great segment on Rachel’s show from last night with Bernie Sanders. At one point he says “why should tax payers be charged 25% interest on their credit cards?” Good point, I want MY vig from the Wall Street cr(ooks)owd for lending THEM some of MY money for this bailout!

I got a digit for her…

Howard Dean would make a great HHS Sec.

here’s a text version (of the original pdf) of markospolos’ prepared testimony that should be suitable for dialup (about 500KB). i’ve also updated the diary in case it is of interest to others.

amen!!

wow thanks selise.

Ah, symetry

symetry = symmetry

but we shouldn’t let perfect be the enemy of the good (to use a phrase I am heartily sick of).

As am I, but it is so needed right now.

I’m not a fan of many of Obama’s appointments thus far, but when a guy does more for our issues in two weeks than his predecessor did in eight years, some slack should be cut.

Please note I didn’t say he shouldn’t be questioned or disagreed with, just more patience to see how things play out.

I got a digit for her…

Actually, she would be worthy of two; one from each hand.

DIGG is open.

56 comments and nobody opened the DIGG???????

The Swim is pretty much like everybody sitting around talking about what’s in the morning papers. It rarely gets Dugg cuz it’s not centered around one topic.

Thanks for the hearings line-up for today, Selise. Your list causes me to put off stocking the larder for another day. Wish I could have more faith in Volcker. Can’t imagine what those regulators who didn’t regulate are going to say for themselves….

Well, SD, I guess that’s the view of some readers. Another view might be that BT sees no DIGGs and concludes that his efforts are not appreciated and ceases to provide the swim….

WTF is Contessa Brewer wearing???!!!???

Why is ANYONE reporting on what Darth Cheney thinks, or does, or says??

Chaney’s new home is within spittin distance of CIA Hdqtrs in Langly; right handy for him to be so close to all those control buttons…oh wait, surely he has a basement bunker control room in his new house..

Thanks Palli & Knut! I’ll use that in my reply. I’ve posted the whole exchange here and will update it when I finish my reply.

I don’t how I can possibly get by on 500k a year. YIKES.

Suck it up dude. I’m sure you can cut back on some less-essentials like the second airplane or yacht.

Why is Peggy Noonan still on my TV?

Once the change to Digital is complete there should be no more sightings.

Who will be the digital analog to Nooner? Is there anyone out there who speaks for the non-Right these days?

Have the Righties taken up so much of the nation’s monies for political spokespersons that there’s no room for anyone else at the inn?

It’s a common scheme at grocery stores for a company to issue a zillion products (see cereals) to take up all the store shelf, so their competitors can’t.

Have the Republicans simply made broadcast television unviewable (for political and news purposes)?